ABSTRACT
Rapid detection and monitoring, in clinical and food diagnostics
and in environmental and biodefense, have paved the way for the
development of alternative analytical devices based on the mole-
cular recognition properties of macromolecular biomolecules and
their electrochemical transduction. Such devices include enzyme
biosensors; DNA, aptamer, and protein sensors; immunosensors;
and biochips. The last decade has seen truly phenomenal growth
in the field of electrochemical (mainly amperometric) biosensors
with applications in different areas, including food and beverage
analysis (e.g., presence of genetically modified organisms [GMOs]),
medical applications (e.g., diagnosis of genetic disorders), detection
of pathogens, forensic applications, drug response measurement,
cancer diagnosis, and environmental issues [1-4]. Concerning the
last of these, as a result of human and technological development,
hundreds of new chemicals of unknown toxicity and effects on
human health are released into the environment every year. The
increasing number of pollutants to monitor and the alarming health
and environmental consequences involved result in increasing
scientific and social concerns in this area. For example, a growing
number of initiatives and legislative actions for stricter environ-
mental pollution control, with particular emphasis on water quality
control for sustainable use of water, has been adopted in recent
years. The sustainable use of water, in fact, is desirable in terms
of addressing the growing human impact and increasing demand
for drinking water. In this context, the contamination of water
by river water and groundwater discharge and widespread use of
herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and chemicals like cadmium,
lead, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pentachlorophenol
(PCP), DDT, and dioxins requires techniques to quantify and
evaluate the impact of these pollutants on human health. Indeed,
the scientific community has established correlations between
these contaminants and a whole range of reproductive and other
health problems, both in wildlife and in humans. In particular,
synthetic hormones and certain chemical products used in industry
and agriculture are capable of disrupting the endocrinal system.
Although there are many tests, some of them are insufficiently sen-
sitive. The stricter environmental control urgently calls for simple,
fast, sensitive, selective, cost-effective, real-time, on-site, and field-
portable monitoring technologies with negligible waste generation
that correspond to the definition of amperometric biosensors.
